Protect the privacy of your online communication

Updated15 September 2021

Each communication method, digital or otherwise, comes with advantages and disadvantages in terms of convenience, popularity, cost, and security, among other considerations. It's up to each of us to weigh the benefits and risks of the methods we use to communicate. When our risks are higher, it is wise to choose our communication tools more deliberately.

Make a communication plan

Establish and rehearse a communication plan for yourself and your community, so you are able to maintain communication and take care of each other in moments of stress or crisis.

• Talk with your contacts. Propose, discuss and agree upon a specific plan for how you are (and are not) going to communicate. Include:
  • known risks
  • apps and services you will and will not use
  • steps you will take if something goes wrong
• Consider informal steps you can take, including:
  • creating and exchanging alternative backup email addresses
  • exchanging phone numbers
  • sharing emergency contacts
• Consider more formal steps you can take:
  • Specify supported communication methods in your organisational security-, data-storage- or document-retention policy.
• Consider what you say and where
  • The easiest way to keep others from learning sensitive information is to not send or say it.
  • For example, plan not to send text messages when someone is travelling through border crossings, or in detention.
  • Consider developing code language you can use to avoid openly mentioning names, addresses, specific actions, etc.
• Rehearse your communication plan

Create multiple disposable accounts

• Many popular email providers allow you to create email aliases for receiving emails to your main mailbox without revealing your main email address.
• Use a Firefox Relay email address.
• If you know it does not matter if you lose access to a mailbox, but you need a viable email address to sign up for an online service, try Guerrilla Mail.

Use Tor Browser, Tails, or a trusted VPN

• See our guide on visiting blocked websites for more on Tor, VPNs, and other tools that protect your online activity from people who want to see what you are doing.
• Learn more about Tails.
• Check is it safe and legal for you to use those tools in your context.

Use email more safely

Encrypt your email messages

• Encrypt email services you already use with
  • Mailvelope
  • Thunderbird
• Try email services that support encryption
  • Proton Mail
    • NOTE: Proton Mail does not automatically encrypt mail to someone who does not use the same service. To encrypt to someone who does not use Proton Mail, you must set a password the recipient can use to open the message or you may need to exchange encryption public keys.

Avoid retaining sensitive information you no longer need

• Set up disappearing messages on messaging applications where possible.
• Delete messages when possible.

Video and audio chat more safely

Use end-to-end encrypted video, voice and text services

If use end-to-end encryption is not possible, make sure to use recommended services, which are hosted on trusted servers by trusted providers.

Control who is connected to video calls and chats

• Know who you are sending a call or chat invite to.
  • Confirm the phone numbers or email addresses you are sending to.
  • Do not share invitations on public social media.
• Before you begin a call, familiarize yourself with the administrator or moderator tools that let you mute, block, or eject unwanted participants. Set it up so only moderators have the ability to mute and block on video calls.
• When a call or chat begins, do not assume you know who is connected only by reading assigned names. It is not difficult for someone to enter the name of someone you know as their user name, and pretend to be them.
  • Check the identities of everyone on the call by asking them to speak or to switch on their camera.
  • Confirm in another channel (like secure chat or email) that the person in a call is who their screen name says they are.
  • Take screenshots or record unwanted participants to collect evidence for later analysis and legal actions.
  • Eject anyone who you do not wish to have in the call or conversation.
• If ejecting or blocking someone does not work, start an entirely new conversation. Double-check the list of phone numbers or email addresses you are sending to, to make sure they are correct for the people you want in the conversation. Contact each person through a different channel to confirm (for example, using a phone call if you think their email address is wrong).

Change video calls to mic and camera off by default

• Assume that when you connect, your camera and microphone may be turned on by default. Check this setting immediately, and be careful what you show and say until you know these are off.
• Consider covering your camera with a sticker or adhesive bandage, and only remove it when you use the camera.
• Consider disabling your microphone and camera in the device settings, if you cannot turn them off it in the service before connecting.

Set rules about capturing and participating in video calls

• Agree on ground rules before a meeting starts. These could address:
  • whether participants will use real names or a nick names
  • whether you will keep your cameras on or off
  • whether participants will keep their microphones on or off when not speaking
  • how participants will indicate that they would like to speak
  • who will lead the meeting
  • who will take notes, and where, whether, and how will those notes be written and distributed
  • whether it is acceptable to take screenshots of or record a video call, etc.

Use a headset

Check what can be seen and heard

• Be mindful of what is visible in the background of your video, both who and what is in the frame.
• You may not want to give away too much information on your house, family pictures, notes on the walls or boards, the natural environment or the city outside your window, etc.
• Choose a location with a blank wall behind you if possible, or clear away clutter.
• Test what is in the background before a call by, for example, opening your camera app or meet.jit.si and starting an empty meeting with your camera switched on so you can see what is in the picture.
• Be mindful who and what can be heard in the background.
• Close the door and windows, or alert those sharing your space about your meeting.

Use secure chat

• See our recommendations for chat tools in the Related Tools section.
• Also see our recommendations about Anonymity while browsing the Web.

Delete chat history

• Find the option in an app to delete all conversations, or specific ones.
  • If you are deleting a chat app, delete messages first before you remove the app, for extra assurance the messages will be removed.
  • If there is no option to automatically make messages disappear, learn how to remove messages manually. Ask your contacts to do the same.
• You may also be able to set messages to "expire," or be deleted from your phone and the recipient's phone after a certain amount of time.
  • Consider how long you want the messages to be visible before they expire. You may have the option to make them expire in minutes, hours, or days.
  • Disappearing messages do not guarantee that your messages will never be found! It is possible that someone could take a screenshot of the messages or that someone could take a photo of the screen using another camera.

Take identifying information out of your photos and other files

• Use Obscuracam, Scrambled Exif, MetaX, or Exifcleaner.
• See this article on removing information from photos for additional techniques.